Lower Intermediate to Intermediate Learners

CEFR: A2 to B1

Magazine Writing

A group project that teaches and practices article writing. This project can be used at any level from A2 upwards. Students write about any topics of their own choice. Peer feedback contributes to good quality and interesting topics.

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Bookmaking

Books and booklets are a wonderful format for lots of topics and projects. The idea is based on the “Didaktik des weißen Blattes”. Instead of worksheets the students are given empty booklets that they have to fill at their own discretion. The learners decide themselves what information to include and how to present it in these booklets. These projects are ideal to practice a variety of text-types. Depending on the situation teachers might give no instructions or tips at all or might give some guidelines concerning content and format(s). The Middle Ages and Tall Tales booklets show a mix of autonomous work and teacher assignments. What all these projects have in common is the learners’ pride and feeling of accomplishment when they hand in their finished masterpieces.

Tip: The feeling of accomplishment and pride that learners experience when handing in their finished masterpieces release a powerful mix of chemicals in the learners’ brains. They are flooded with dopamine and other neurotransmitters that act like addictive drugs saying: “Wow! That feels good, gimme more of this. I’ll do it again.” .

Diaries

Oliver Twist Diaries: After working on the effects of the Industrial Revolution on the lower classes in Britain, we watched the movie “Oliver Twist” in class. The learners were given old-looking diaries (i.e. empty booklets consisting of 3 sheets of white paper and one cover-sheet that had been stained with black tea and/or coffee before).

At interesting and moving moments we stopped the film and the learners were asked to write Oliver’s diary after this specific experience. The learners had between 5 and 10 minutes to write about a specific day or experience while it was still fresh on their minds and the new vocabulary from the movie was still ringing in their ears. Some learners used the Oliver Twist diaries in class and wrote the diary entries directly into these booklets. Others used their own sheets and then revised and typed their texts at home.